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The regulation of worldwide sports betting

Prohibition has only served to drive online sports betting and casinos to unregulated markets where shady dealings and match-fixing is more likely. In the early 1900s, the United States learned an extremely important lesson. Alcohol was made illegal, and the era of prohibition only proved one thing: People are going to drink alcohol whether you want them to or not. A lot of places in the world are seeing the same thing with sports betting and casino play right now, especially on the Internet.

The Argument Against Legalised Online Sports Betting

The main argument used against legalising online sports betting and casinos is that it will promote the fixing of matches and the throwing of games that will taint the integrity of sports. The problem with this argument is that people are going to bet on sports regardless of the law. There are two really good examples of this that happened with the biggest sporting event in North America: the Super Bowl.

Canadian Online Sports Betting

In Canada, a federal law makes it illegal to place a wager online for a single sporting event, though they can bet on three or more events in a parlay-style bet. And what was the result of this for the Super Bowl in 2014? According to the Canadian Gaming Association, more than $90 million was wagered on the Super Bowl from just Canadian fans. The match-fixing argument does not work because it’s less likely to be a factor in a regulated environment where funds are set aside for monitoring and investigating suspicious behaviour.

The Situation in the United States

In the United States, there’s a similar situation where online sports betting is made illegal on a federal level thanks to the Interstate Wire Act of 1963. Known as 18 U.S.C. § 1084, this law was designed to combat organized crime organizations that were taking sports bets over telephone lines. It’s completely outdated now, and it only serves the purpose of driving all online sports betting underground. It was even used for a long time to try to justify a federal ban for online casino play, but the Department of Justice made it clear in 2011 that it only applied to sports betting.

Other Parts of the World

Match-fixing is a pretty big deal, and it happens fairly often. However, every single time people have been caught for doing it, they’ve been caught because the betting surrounding it happened on regulated sites like those listed on www.top10bestonlinecasinos.co.uk. The regulatory bodies were able to have people investigating and monitoring all of their wagers using sophisticated tools and experienced professionals, and with unregulated sports betting, you just don’t have that. The next time you hear any sports league trying to keep out an expansion of online sports betting and casinos with the argument that it will increase match-fixing, realize that they are shooting themselves in the foot. The argument holds absolutely no weight whatsoever, and it’s completely counterproductive.